Scopes Trial

Attitudes toward the theory of evolution apparently haven't changed much since a Tennessee high school teacher was tried for teaching it in 1925. According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a third of Americans — and 48 percent of Republicans — don't believe in evolution, being convinced instead that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning. Eighty-eight years ago, the Tennessee legislature banned Charles Darwin's ideas from the...

Attitudes toward the theory of evolution apparently haven't changed much since a Tennessee high school teacher was tried for teaching it in 1925. According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a third of Americans — and 48 percent of Republicans — don't believe in evolution, being convinced instead that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning. Eighty-eight years ago, the Tennessee legislature banned Charles Darwin's ideas from the...

After viewing "Inherit The Wind," I began to wonder what the world would be like today if the net result of the Scopes trial had been different. Would people feel differently about themselves and others if they were taught and believed that they were created by God instead of evolved from apes? Would there be as many abortions if women believed their babies were creations from God instead of evolutions from monkeys? Would there be as many killings, suicides, etc?

"Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt." --CLARENCE DARROW - - - BY THE TIME he argued for the defense in the 1925 Scopes "MONKEY TRIAL," Clarence Darrow's identification with Chicago was firmly set in the public mind. And rightly so; Darrow and Chicago were perfect for each other. That was clear since the former small-town OHIO LAWYER arrived in 1888 and quickly found a political patron in future Gov. John Peter Altgeld. Among the city's freethinkers, political hacks,...

"Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt." --CLARENCE DARROW - - - BY THE TIME he argued for the defense in the 1925 Scopes "MONKEY TRIAL," Clarence Darrow's identification with Chicago was firmly set in the public mind. And rightly so; Darrow and Chicago were perfect for each other. That was clear since the former small-town OHIO LAWYER arrived in 1888 and quickly found a political patron in future Gov. John Peter Altgeld. Among the city's freethinkers, political hacks,...

The mainstream media, or MSM, has been a favorite target of conservatives, but it is not alone. Welcome to the Web site Conservapedia.com, founded by Andrew Schlafly, son of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. The site describes itself as "a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American." Even when the heart of the definition is the same, Wikipedia and Conservapedia differ on the delivery. What follows...

BAD CUB KARMA PREDATES THE 1964 LOU BROCK TRADE. In 1934, they blew the chance to sign JOE DIMAGGIO, 19, who had been tearing up the Pacific Coast League before tearing up his knee alighting from a cab. Offered the future Joltin' Joe for a song, the Cubs passed on him, figuring his knee was gone, and the Yanks picked him up for 25Gs and change. When legendary Cub player-manager CAP ANSON left baseball, he opened a Loop pool hall before being elected city clerk in 1905. Discovering he owed $210 in back licensing...

BAD CUB KARMA PREDATES THE 1964 LOU BROCK TRADE. In 1934, they blew the chance to sign JOE DIMAGGIO, 19, who had been tearing up the Pacific Coast League before tearing up his knee alighting from a cab. Offered the future Joltin' Joe for a song, the Cubs passed on him, figuring his knee was gone, and the Yanks picked him up for 25Gs and change. When legendary Cub player-manager CAP ANSON left baseball, he opened a Loop pool hall before being elected city clerk in 1905. Discovering he owed $210 in back licensing...

The mainstream media, or MSM, has been a favorite target of conservatives, but it is not alone. Welcome to the Web site Conservapedia.com, founded by Andrew Schlafly, son of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. The site describes itself as "a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American." Even when the heart of the definition is the same, Wikipedia and Conservapedia differ on the delivery. What follows...

So now people can finally start paying attention to that other election. You know, the one that will determine the next Leader of the Free World. In a two-hour television show that featured love handle-clutching, totem pole-clasping and the ceremonial burning of "Superpole 2000," the Robinson Crusoe spiritual heirs on the CBS summer sensation "Survivor" elected a winner from their ranks Wednesday to the delight, dismay and entertainment of the tens of millions of Americans watching.

It's hard to notice historic turnings at the moment they happen. But sometimes the signs of the times appear in bold neon letters. That's the way to look at conservative leader Paul Weyrich's recent declaration that "politics has failed" and that moral conservatives should "separate ourselves from this hostile culture" and engage in "some sort of quarantine." Weyrich made his position public in an open letter to his supporters last month and elaborated on it in an opinion piece in The Washington...

In 1925, in an unprecedented nationwide broadcast, Chicago's WGN Radio covered the Scopes "Monkey Trial," where two titan attorneys, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, battled over a case of evolution versus creationism and their places in public school curriculum. Today, WGN-AM 720 host John Williams will re-create a bit of the trial's history with live reports and interviews from the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tenn., where the action took place. The radio show, from 3 to...

Television recently showed a new production of "Inherit the Wind," the play based on the famous Scopes trial. It was only a so-so performance. But this is not a drama criticism. I happened to notice a letter in the "Voice of the people" section of this paper from a woman who also saw that show. The woman, Rita Rucin, of Oak Lawn, wrote: "After viewing `Inherit the Wind,` I began to wonder what the world would be like today if the net result of the Scopes trial had been different.

It's hard to notice historic turnings at the moment they happen. But sometimes the signs of the times appear in bold neon letters. That's the way to look at conservative leader Paul Weyrich's recent declaration that "politics has failed" and that moral conservatives should "separate ourselves from this hostile culture" and engage in "some sort of quarantine." Weyrich made his position public in an open letter to his supporters last month and elaborated on it in an opinion piece in The Washington...

Movie lovers flock to the cinema for many reasons: some to be entertained, others for artistic sustenance, and a more select group in search of knowledge. A good documentary encompasses all these, and the Windy City International Documentary Festival, sponsored by Columbia College, will show 35 documentaries from 20 countries, beginning Sunday through Sept. 27. Unlike other fests that wait to announce their prize winners, Windy City lets the audience know up...

Movie lovers flock to the cinema for many reasons: some to be entertained, others for artistic sustenance, and a more select group in search of knowledge. A good documentary encompasses all these, and the Windy City International Documentary Festival, sponsored by Columbia College, will show 35 documentaries from 20 countries, beginning Sunday through Sept. 27. Unlike other fests that wait to announce their prize winners, Windy City lets the audience know up...

Chicago's swells--1,100 of them--who turned out Friday night for the Museum of Contemporary Art's big benefit gala sweltered little in summer's first furnace blast. They can thank the 160 tons of air conditioning power that chairwomen Cindy Pritzker and Frannie Dittmer had hooked up to two outdoor tents for that. (Though, in a bow to Chicago's weather, we understand heating units had also been reserved.) Heat wasn't on MCA Director Kevin Consey's mind as he greeted art collectors,...

When 11-year-old Brittany Martinez disappeared from in front of her Elgin home last year, volunteers spent 10 days scouring the area for her. But the girl probably died within 24 hours of her disappearance, McHenry County prosecutors said Tuesday. That conclusion was made by a forensic entomologist who studied Brittany's body after she was found May 17, 1997, in the Kishwaukee River near Union in southern McHenry County. She had disappeared May 8. "The report tells us...

One of the problems here is that the whole brouhaha with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the whole unseemly business of preachers, sex and money, is being taken far too seriously. For the most part, the Victorian gents in the public prints, and this one among them, have treated the story of illicit sex, hush money and buncombe with straight journalistic faces of the sort used for articles on welfare reform and saving the wetlands. Nearly 70 years ago, a Baltimore newspaperman named Henry Louis...

The trial on the 14th floor of the Dirksen Federal Building could have national repercussions and involves one of the most emotionally volatile issues of our time--abortion. But at times over the past six weeks, the jurors have barely been able to keep their eyes open as they follow testimony in the National Organization for Women's racketeering suit against anti-abortion activists. Toward the end of one 6 1/2-hour cross-examination last week, at least four of the seven jurors...